"That's a good fight, Floyd and Cotto. He thinks that Cotto is an easy opponent, but he's not," stated WBO jr. welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao, who warned Floyd Mayweather not to take Miguel Cotto lightly when the two step into the ring on May 5th. Having been in the ring himself with the current WBA jr. middleweight champion, Pacquiao knows a thing or two about Cotto's strengths, and he was quick to offer up some advise for Mayweather when asked his opinion about the upcoming May 5th showdown.
"You know, Cotto is a good boxer and strong. So he needs to train hard, because Cotto is strong; really strong," Pacquiao continued, reflecting on his encounter with the Puerto Rican sensation, which ultimately resulted in an 12th round TKO victory, giving Pacquiao the WBO welterweight title that he will be defending against Timothy Bradley on June 9th. That victory, however, did not come without a cost, as Pacquiao suffered a ruptured ear, a testament to just how hard Cotto actually does punch. The memory of the damage he sustained in that fight might be one of the reasons why Pacquiao said that Cotto was his toughest opponent to date since moving up in weight and making a permanent home in the welterweight division.
"Miguel Cotto; first five rounds, it's a good fight, you know, one to five rounds, he'd keep up, keep fighting," he explained as he talked his own encounter with Cotto. In fact, Pacquiao would go so far as to say that Cotto was an even tougher opponent than Juan Manuel Marquez, who most would agree has actually come the closest to defeating him. Although Pacquiao is hoping that Mayweather will be victorious so they can eventually face each other in the ring, he isn't ruling out Cotto's chances of coming out victorious. "Big chance; big chance he'll win the fight," he added when asked of Cotto's chances to pull off the upset.
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